Tuesday, August 17, 2004
What War?
there are people telling us that the united states and israel are trampling upon the basic constitutional laws which have come into place and evolved the past 800 years starting with the magna carta, but the u.s. and israel are fighting wars. we can argue all day about what is right and wrong, but i believe that the folks being held on the island hamlet in cuba are not run of the mill common folk from villages in central asia. simply said, war is not pretty, but what would be worse would be to lose the war because we dont want to appear to be too rough.
while i understand that many walking the globe refuse to believe that it is a war, i am not one of them. sometimes kindness is another form of appeasement. once in a while during life you have to fight, imo this is one of those times. while i am certain there are detainees in cuba that dont belong there this can only be judged within the scope of history.
here is an article from ha'aretz yesterday regarding the latest 'hot' issue concerning palestinian prisoners here.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/465303.html
the hunger strike that some palestinian prisoners are starting and the way in which israel is combating it by having meat cooked near the cells of the prisoners to entice them to eat is certain to make bigger news in the days to come.
the bbc recently said that there are approximately 8000 palestinians being held as prisoners for security reasons by israel.
as for the number sighted i dont know. ha'aretz in this article list some numbers too.
while never good to have your prison systems overflowing with people there are some instances when it cannot be avoided. i doubt israel is perfect and suspect not everyone in a prison here needs to be but again the situation dictates some type of action to safe guard the public. lets say the palestinian population is about 2.7 - 3 million in the west bank and gaza we are then speaking about a potential of less than half one percent of population in the midst of an armed conflict against another that is being held (i am certain this number will be argued about). call them p.o.w's or anything you want but cold hard reality is that something must be done until palestinian authority changes their policy of negotiating through bomb belts and poor quality missiles.
i would rather be tough on prisoners, detainees, suspects and infringe upon their rights to save the lives of another thousand innocent victims......
while people all too easily want to point out the 'injustices' being commited by the u.s. and israel. they refuse to look at the greater context of history and the many times in which rules of law were tweeked, whether this had to do with war or colonialism.
it is an empty arguement for europeans and others in the west who are against war to point out - "oh yes, that was terribly impolite what we did to them (fill in your own historical tragedy here) then, but we should make sure others act in a more civilized way and we will teach them the lessons we have learned...because it is most disagreeable".......please, it is an easy position to take when you sit on the winning side in history. appearing polite after victory is good form isnt it?
as for israel and anyone else treating people from a position of strenght today, that is the way it goes.....any country in their right mind would do it. please take a look at the security efforts in place to make sure disaster doesnt strike around the world. do you think it is all for show? do you think it is all propaganda?
it is called taking responsibility for ones own actions. do not tell me that what israel does is looked upon poorly around the world, you dont think i know that? but too, do you really believe israel has another choice? having been in this little part of the world for a while now, i can tell you that it feels a whole lot better going to sleep without sirens and radio alerts waking you up in the middle of the night.
my problem with the arguement against treating prisoners too harshly is that many people seem to be pointing out only the negatives about the united states and israel and forgetting that both the u.s and israel are accountable and do take responsibility for their actions. lastly the protesters always hold up the u.s and israel to a higher standard than they do other countries and institutions. why not hold france, columbia, the palestinian authority, china, russia, the united nations, iran, sudan, rwanda, central congo, etc, etc,.....up to the same standards? the rules of law are for all of us arent they?
while i understand that many walking the globe refuse to believe that it is a war, i am not one of them. sometimes kindness is another form of appeasement. once in a while during life you have to fight, imo this is one of those times. while i am certain there are detainees in cuba that dont belong there this can only be judged within the scope of history.
here is an article from ha'aretz yesterday regarding the latest 'hot' issue concerning palestinian prisoners here.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/465303.html
the hunger strike that some palestinian prisoners are starting and the way in which israel is combating it by having meat cooked near the cells of the prisoners to entice them to eat is certain to make bigger news in the days to come.
the bbc recently said that there are approximately 8000 palestinians being held as prisoners for security reasons by israel.
as for the number sighted i dont know. ha'aretz in this article list some numbers too.
while never good to have your prison systems overflowing with people there are some instances when it cannot be avoided. i doubt israel is perfect and suspect not everyone in a prison here needs to be but again the situation dictates some type of action to safe guard the public. lets say the palestinian population is about 2.7 - 3 million in the west bank and gaza we are then speaking about a potential of less than half one percent of population in the midst of an armed conflict against another that is being held (i am certain this number will be argued about). call them p.o.w's or anything you want but cold hard reality is that something must be done until palestinian authority changes their policy of negotiating through bomb belts and poor quality missiles.
i would rather be tough on prisoners, detainees, suspects and infringe upon their rights to save the lives of another thousand innocent victims......
while people all too easily want to point out the 'injustices' being commited by the u.s. and israel. they refuse to look at the greater context of history and the many times in which rules of law were tweeked, whether this had to do with war or colonialism.
it is an empty arguement for europeans and others in the west who are against war to point out - "oh yes, that was terribly impolite what we did to them (fill in your own historical tragedy here) then, but we should make sure others act in a more civilized way and we will teach them the lessons we have learned...because it is most disagreeable".......please, it is an easy position to take when you sit on the winning side in history. appearing polite after victory is good form isnt it?
as for israel and anyone else treating people from a position of strenght today, that is the way it goes.....any country in their right mind would do it. please take a look at the security efforts in place to make sure disaster doesnt strike around the world. do you think it is all for show? do you think it is all propaganda?
it is called taking responsibility for ones own actions. do not tell me that what israel does is looked upon poorly around the world, you dont think i know that? but too, do you really believe israel has another choice? having been in this little part of the world for a while now, i can tell you that it feels a whole lot better going to sleep without sirens and radio alerts waking you up in the middle of the night.
my problem with the arguement against treating prisoners too harshly is that many people seem to be pointing out only the negatives about the united states and israel and forgetting that both the u.s and israel are accountable and do take responsibility for their actions. lastly the protesters always hold up the u.s and israel to a higher standard than they do other countries and institutions. why not hold france, columbia, the palestinian authority, china, russia, the united nations, iran, sudan, rwanda, central congo, etc, etc,.....up to the same standards? the rules of law are for all of us arent they?
// posted by Zevchi @ 10:40 AM 
